Former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani is reportedly taking on a challenge that even the government has failed to meet. Learning levels in primary schools, as the latest Annual Status of Education Report (Aser) points out, remain dismal despite the massive government spending. Nilekani is setting up Ek Step, a social enterprise, with his former colleagues at UIDAI. It would involve elementary school children using low-end tablets and smartphones to improve their arithmetic and reading skills.
It is easy to be sceptical of Nilekani’s solution—would children who can barely read be able to use the devices; how would the teachers figure in the plan, etc? But that would be missing the wood for the trees. India, including the rural bits, is seeing a meteoric rise in the adoption of smartphones. Children, irrespective of learning abilities, are already getting familiar with such devices. If this familiarity is shaped into user adeptness, there is no reason why, even in the hinterland, students can’t read or do sums off a tablet during and beyond school hours. Key to this, though, would be training the teachers to incorporate these devices into their teaching methods. Learning outcomes depend a great deal on motivated and efficient teachers. Ek Step and similar initiatives will, therefore, need to work with teachers first if such technocratic solutions are to achieve their goals.
